Gaming device manufacturers strive to make gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment and excitement as possible. Providing a game in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards or credits is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement.
Currently, gaming machines or devices provide games wherein a player has one or more opportunities to obtain a winning symbol combination on mechanical or video reels. The winning symbol combination may be along the same payline or on different paylines (known as a scatter pay). By providing gaming devices with more winning symbol combinations, players have more opportunities to receive an award.
In known gaming devices, however, the probability of obtaining the largest award (i.e., the jackpot award) is typically much lower than the probability of obtaining the other awards in a game. Thus, although a player may obtain more awards in a game, these awards are generally the relatively small awards and not the relatively large awards such as the jackpot award.
Many jurisdictions have regulations that prohibit changing the probability of occurrence associated with the reel symbols. This makes it more difficult to create bonus or secondary games with high payouts using the bonus game reels and reel symbols.
Additionally, many known gaming devices provide wild symbols or wild cards to enhance a player's opportunity of receiving awards in a game. In a reel game, wild symbols provide a player with an additional opportunity or opportunities to obtain winning symbol combinations on the reels. Therefore, wild symbols, wild cards and wild indicators in gaming devices provide additional excitement and entertainment for players.
In a slot machine having reels, a wild symbol can enable the matching of one or more symbols on a payline to achieve a symbol combination. For example in FIG. 8, a gaming device including a game having three reels is displayed to a player. In the game, a winning combination of symbols includes three matching symbols in the game. As illustrated in FIG. 8, in one of the activations or spins of the reels, a star symbol, a wild symbol and a circle symbol are indicated on the reels. The wild symbol matches one of the symbols on the same payline, payline 56b, as the wild symbol. Therefore, the indicated symbol combination on payline 56b is either two star symbols or two circle symbols. In this example, neither of these symbol combinations are winning symbol combinations. Therefore, the player obtained a wild symbol on the reels but did not obtain a winning symbol combination in the game as indicated by the game display 200 and the total award display 202. Because the probability of obtaining a winning symbol combination increases when a wild symbol occurs on one or more of the reels in a game, a player's excitement and enjoyment also increases in the game. However, when the player does not obtain a winning symbol combination after obtaining a wild symbol in the game, the player's excitement level decreases. Therefore, a game that provides additional award opportunities related to a wild symbol is desirable.
Gaming devices that increase the probability of obtaining the relatively large award and specifically, the jackpot award, are desirable. Additionally, gaming devices that increase the opportunities of obtaining an award or awards in a game are desirable. To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide new games and gaming devices which increase the likelihood or probability that the player will obtain one or more awards in a game and specifically, one or more relatively large awards in a game.